Today's presentations on bad PowerPoints were hilarious. I think the most hilarious part about them, apart from the obvious errors being showcased, was that I have seen several professionals (from all different areas and walks of life ) commit the same PowerPoint errors. I think the reason so many of those errors get committed is actually because of people's need to be more engaged with technology. Let me explain what I mean.
In the military, when we create PowerPoint presentations, there is a VERY strict format that we have to follow, so that every powerpoint looks the same essentially (except the information that is on the slides). Example: Background has to be a specific shade of blue, text HAS to be yellow, and secondary text has to be red, pictures have to be outlined in 2.5 bold red lines, classification designation on each page, no more than six lines of text in a text box, and the list goes on and on and on. As you can imagine, in my trade (Intelligence) you are creating presentations ALL the time. It can get quite boring to always be using the same format. You can't do anything new or exciting even if you wanted to. However, that being said, the presentations always come off as very professional and clean. They are easy to read, which is the point because when you are presenting top secret information to the commander that could potentially save the lives of several soldiers and civilians, you don't want to be goofing around with fly in pictures or sound effects...
It seems like sometimes people, including professionals, choose to use unnecessary "add-ons" in their presentations just to simply use more technology. We all know that technology is addicting. Why just have a plain text box and a picture on a slide when you can have sweet graphics fly on to the page and crazy sound effects to get the audience looking up (and away from their blackberrys/ iPhones that they are hiding underneath their desks)? I understand this completely. I mean, why would the program have the ability to do all these things if we aren't supposed to be utilizing them? This is how people get trapped in the cycle of producing horrible PowerPoint presentations. Like with all forms of technology, you have to know when its "too much." There needs to be a balance with everything. In the end I think it is really coming down to personal preference. For me, I tend to lean toward more simply structured PowerPoints, only because that is how I have been trained for the last 3 years of my life. For other people, who are perhaps more tech savvy, they may lean toward using more "bells and whistles" in their presentations. I feel like the indicator for what constitutes a good powerpoint or not should be if the audience understood the information you were trying to present. That is the point of the presentation after all. If people still get the information from your powerpoint that has crazy colours, fonts, and graphics, then that is perfectly fine. If they can't, well then maybe you have a problem, and you should try a different approach to your presentations next time around.
You are bang on Lacey!! Wow, those are some seriously strict guidelines for the military, didn't know about that! But hey, I guess if you are giving intelligence, anything that would be taking away from that (ex. extra special effects etc.) would only serve to harm the mission!
ReplyDeleteWe can remember that the type of rigid guidelines you talk about doesn't just apply to the military but can be seen in many other places. Many corporate companies, particularily in the finance area, also apply guidelines to the presentation of material. While it may not result in the saving of lives it gets to the same point. Clear and concise presentation results in the smooth flow of information across any medium. I like your link to your experience in the military, but I figured that it should have been noted that this clear organization does not need to be limited to a strict chain of command structure but can be enabled in any environment where the presentation of facts is regarded as more important than the presentation itself.
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